The International Court of Justice (ICJ)the highest judicial body of the UN system, this Thursday rejected the request presented by Mexico of urgent provisional measures against Ecuador for the invasion of its Embassy in Quito.
“The Court unanimously considers that the circumstances, as they now appear before the Court, are not such as to require the exercise of its power (…) to indicate” provisional measures, read the president of the court, Judge Nawaf Salam, quoted by AFP.
Mexico asked the court based in The Hague to urgently demand that Ecuador protect the archives of the invaded Embassy, and allow the eviction of the diplomatic headquarters and the private residences of its staff.
Likewise, he asked that Ecuador refrain from any act that could affect the implementation of the ICJ orders and from all “conduct that aggravates and expands the dispute” between the two countries.
The judges, however, considered that Ecuador offered the Court written guarantees regarding the protection of the archives and its agreement for Mexican personnel to vacate the facilities. that he used in the Ecuadorian capital.
Thus, the ICJ considered that these guarantees “are binding and create legal obligations for the defendant.”
Therefore, the ICJ “considers that there is currently no urgency, in the sense that there is no real and imminent risk of irreparable harm to the rights claimed by the applicant.”
However, the ruling read by Judge Salam emphasized “the fundamental importance of the principle enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
According to the ICJ, “there is no more fundamental prerequisite for the development of relations between States than the inviolability of diplomatic facilities and embassies.”
In the next step, The ICJ judges will analyze the merits of the issue, in which Mexico accuses Ecuador of “violating international law.”
Mexico also demanded that the ICJ suspend Ecuador from the UN until it apologizes for what happened.
Representatives of the two countries expressed satisfaction with the court’s position.
“The Government of Mexico feels very satisfied with the order issued by the ICJ (…), because it recognizes (…) that the inviolability of a diplomatic mission is absolute,” said Mexico’s main agent, the jurist Alejandro Celorio.
For Celorio, the fact that the ICJ has considered Ecuadorian guarantees binding means that that country has the “commitment” to protect Mexican diplomatic facilities.
For his part, the Ecuadorian agent, Andrés Terán Parral, pointed out that his country “remains in these guarantees [ofrecidas al tribunal] and welcomes this decision of the ICJ.”
In a statement released in Quito, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry indicated that the ICJ decision “confirms the unnecessary nature of the request” presented by Mexico.
On April 5, Ecuadorian forces broke into the diplomatic representation of Mexico and detained the former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas, who was asylum there.
The next day, Mexico announced the breaking of its relations with Ecuador and the withdrawal of all its diplomatic personnel from that country.
After a dramatic escalation of tensions, Mexico granted Glas asylum status. A few hours later, the Embassy was invaded by armed agents.
Ecuador filed a complaint against Mexico before the ICJ for alleged “abuse” of diplomatic prerogatives to protect Glas.
